Odd and Interesting Music:70's

From the Library of Obscure 70's Music

THIRD WORLD WARFormed in 1970 by Terry Stamp, John Fenton, and Jim Avery, Third World War was a band who came out too soon and was ahead of their time. They released their garage-metal masterpiece debut, "Third World War", in 1970. Fearing the bands lack of mainstream appeal, their manager dropped them from Fly Records and signed them to Track Records, who also released many albums from The Who. When they signed,their second album went through numerous changes before being released as "Third World War II" in 1972. That same year, John Fenton ran out of money and could no longer pay his bandmates, so the band called it quits later that year. Member Jim Price went on to play the horn for the Rolling Stones during their 1972-1973 tour.

CABARET VOLTAIREFormed in 1973, Cabaret Voltaire is mostly remembered for their late 80's electronic sound. However, in the 70's, they recorded a number of interesting sounds, which would later be collected on "Methodology '74/'78: The Attic Tapes." They split up in 1994.

THROBBING GRISTLE

Don't let the image fool you; this music was creepy,aggressive, industrial noise. Led by Genesis P-Orridge (not transvestite; not man or woman either) formed this band in 1975 after being in performance art group COUM Transmissions. In 1979 they released "20 Jazz Funk Greats", which led to a lot of people misunderstanding the title. Although they broke up in 1980, they reformed in 2004 and have been doing shows ever since.

THE STOOGESThey have such a long and crazy history i'd half to write another article on them. Same goes for the New York Dolls.

Moving on...

LAUGHING DOGSOriginally starting as an underground CB-GB's band, released two critically acclaimed albums, "The Laughing Dogs" and "The Laughing Dogs Meet Their Makers" on Columbia Records. "Get 'im Outta Town", "Reason for Love", and "Johnny Contender" all hit the Billboard charts. However, after the release of their second album, they disappeared. On another interesting note, The Laughing Dogs were selected as The Monkees backing band on their 1977 reunion tour.

IMPERIAL DOGSLittle is known about the Imperial Dogs except they seemed to be at their peak in 1974. Although no album was released, through various compilations, their music has been heard and has inspired millions of hard-rockers everywhere.

ZOLAR XMostly known for gigging at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco in the early 70's, space-punks Zolar X were never quite understood, like cult heroes The Residents. After their 1981 split, members returned to their normal jobs, and lead singer Zory Zenith was arrested (i'm unsure why, though.) However, when Alternative Tentacles issued a compilation album called "Timeless"', the group got back together (minus Zory Zenith) and have been touring ever since.

ELECTRIC EELSCrazy cleveland punk rockers from the 70's, the Electric Eels were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their many exploits include (but not limited too) bringing a lawnmower on stage, kicking a cop in the nuts and getting a broken hand (that's how Guitarist John "Broken Hand" Morton got his nickname), yelling racial slurs at the audience, which caused them to only perform 6 gigs, most ending in violence. However, after their demise in 1975, various 45's and demos began to pop-up, eventually leading to the release of "Eyeball of Hell" in 2001. Lead singer Dave E formed The Jazz Destroyers and Cool Marriage Counselors before settling down, and most the other members went on to be in the Styrenes.

LOU REEDHeroin loving New Yorker Lou Reed began his solo career after the demise of the Velvet Underground. He released masterpieces such as "Transformer" and "Sally Can't Dance' before releasing the controversial "Metal Machine Music" in 1975. 4 album sides of feedback played of different speed, it, quite frankly, pissed everybody off, (except for Lester Bangs, but that's another story for another day.) After settling down in the late 70's, Lou Reed eventually made a comeback with 1989's gritty urban masterpiece, "New York", and has been livng the high life ever since.

Thank you for reading this article and be sure to keep a watchful eye for "Odd and Interesting Music: 80's", coming soon!

SSPig

SSPig Productions

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SSpig,Why dont you shut up and stop making these articles? Because I hate them. And how about you stop telling me to write articles? This box is for comments... and thats what im doing, commenting. Not article writing.

The Imperial Dogs did release an album (Unchained Maladies: Live! 1974-75) on Australian indie Dog Meat in 1989. There's also a 45 on Back Door Man records (a spin-off of the L.A.-based fanzine),which was bootlegged on Moxie. Never seen them on a compilation, but anyone interested in the Imperial Dogs should check out theimperialdogs.com, where you can find a pair of clips taken from the DVD (the cover of which was pictured above), loads of reviews (including a huge story in the new Ugly Things fanzine), etc.

As a KISS fan I've heard of the Laughing Dogs because their first album cover was originally going to be used by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons in their pre-KISS band Wicked Lester, before they decided to ditch that band and put on some make-up to rock n' roll all nite!

Abondon all signs of a personal life? Says the guy who makes it his web ambition to come on to a sight dedicated to all things retro and slate other users work, despite not writing one himself.You say you aint got the time to read all the articles and comment let alone write your own, if you spent half as much time puttin an article together as you do coming up with witty sarcy remarks and put downs, you might have something to contribute.

Well Caps 2.0 (if that IS your real name), I would love to do an article, and I plan on doing so in the future when I find the time. But you see I barely even have enough time to read and comment on this site, much less the time to make articles. However, if you'd like, I could just slap some random retro images up along with as little text as possible as fast as I can and call THAT an article like most others do here. Or perhaps I could do as you, yourself have done and abandon all signs of a personal life so that I may claim the prestigious title of "Number 1". May I have your autograph, oh master of the web? Calm down, im only kidding. I actually dont hate your articles... and thats saying something.

Don't mind what RetroJerk says. Articles like this can inspire one to track down the artists on websites like YouTube. A song title or a description of an artist's antics can hit someone and inspire them onwards to things they never would've tried had they not read the article.

Good job...

Oh, and RetroJerk: Have you ever written any articles? If not, give it a try. Let's see what you have.

Articles about music are about as appealing as articles about food. You cant read the sounds of music, and you cant taste words. But that doesnt really matter does it? Just as long as everyone knows you like strange music, youll be just fine. There is a reason why most of these bands are obscure (with the exclusion of Lou Reed and The Stooges)... its because most of these bands suck.